About David Goldblatt

For over 60 years, photographer David Goldblatt has documented the far-reaching effects of Apartheid in South African society with directness and humanity. A descendent of Jewish immigrants, Goldblatt’s own position as an outsider afforded him a deeper appreciation for the daily injustices suffered by South Africa’s oppressed majority. He rarely takes pictures of obvious violence or brutality, instead turning his lens toward the complexities of everyday life, observing the quiet suffering of black workers on their daily bus commutes or the casual privilege of white Afrikaners. In South Africa: The Structure of Things Then (1998), Goldblatt published a collection of photographs capturing literal and ideological structures that shaped his native country. He has expanded his practice in recent years to include color photography, as well as broadened his focus to cover the ravages of AIDS and consumerism on an already delicate post-Apartheid society.